Saturday, July 08, 2006

Ruth's Public Radio Report Pt. I

Ruth: There was not a lot last week that I wanted to highlight now that I am attempting to focus on Iraq for the reports. I did a report that would have gone up on Monday night but, if you missed it, C.I. rightly saw something in my report that I was missing: Michael Ratner's speech. That was a perfect highlight for the Fourth of July.

Friday evening, a member e-mailed to say that she had not been listening to Law and Disorder. She enjoyed the coverage of it here and felt like she should check it out. She read Mr. Ratner's speech when she returned to work on Friday and decided it was "about time I made an effort to listen to this show." So Friday, she subscribed to the podcast and caught up with the last four podcasts. She played the speech for a friend. That is how it works. We all get the word out.

Due to transcribing some of Mr. Ratner's speech, I did not have time to rewrite my report and help out with the news headlines we worked on together for the Fourth of July. But I want to note early that last week, I did catch two broadcasts that addressed the war in Iraq.

Rachel and Mike both responded immediately when I sent up the 'flare' saying basically, "Anybody, anything?" -- as did my granddaughter Tracey. They steered to me WBAI's Wakeup Call.Thursday on the second hour of WBAI's Wakeup Call, Deepa Fernandes, and another person whose name I did not catch, interviewed Omar Abdullah who is one of the contributors to Alive In Baghdad, a website the community is familiar with which offers unembedded reporting on and from Iraq. Mr. Abdullah was reporting from Iraq. During the interview, there was a great deal of news as US helicopters flew overhead and that led to a discussion of how common that was. It is the sort of detail you probably will not hear addressed elsewhere.

My granddaughter Tracey is a huge fan of Ms. Fernandes and wants me to pass on that this month, Ms. Fernandes first book Targeted, will be released by Seven Stories Press.

Friday on the third hour of WBAI's Wakeup Call, Mario Murillo spoke with an author of a book and managed to use the topic (Latin America) as a starting point for Iraq.

That was last week. This week?

Before I get into the coverage of that, I want to note Law and Disorder from this Monday on WBAI. The first segment covered the issue of NSA illegal, warrantless spying. The guest was Cory Stoughton, with the and her point was a solid one. The government is being no responsive. What can we do? We can contact our phone providers, in writing, and let them know that we do not appreciate our communication records being turned over to the government. I am sure others have made similar remarks, they must have. But I had not heard it before. It reminded me of when women started to realize their own buying power and demanded that magazines and ads marketed to them be more representative. One phone company, AT&T, is now more interested in covering business. I wonder if they would be so lackadaisical if they received hundreds of letters from the individuals who do have service with them?

That was one of the three segments. Mike covered the second segment in "War as an after thought" and Cedric covered the third segment in "Law and Disorder on the Green Scare." All are worth listening to. If you're unable to listen on your computer, please check out their coverage at their sites. Now we're ready for part two of the report.

About Me

We do not open attachments. Stop e-mailing them. Threats and abusive e-mail are not covered by any privacy rule. This isn't to the reporters at a certain paper (keep 'em coming, they are funny). This is for the likes of failed comics who think they can threaten via e-mails and then whine, "E-mails are supposed to be private." E-mail threats will be turned over to the FBI and they will be noted here with the names and anything I feel like quoting.
This also applies to anyone writing to complain about a friend of mine. That's not why the public account exists.